Tuesday, April 24, 2012

As I think of some miracle/baptism stories from my mission,
one stands out in my mind. It was on my
second transfer in the mission. I was
serving in the Kariya area and Elder Kekauoha was my companion.

It was September 9th, 2010, and Elder Kekauoha
and I just got done visiting some potential investigators when we got a call
from President Baird. He did the usual, “Are
you being obedient? Is the Church true?” We answered yes. He then told us he had a referral for us from
the Philippines and that we should contact this person ASAP. He also instructed us to call a member who
knew the area where this referral lived and ask them about that area. He told
us to have that member give us a ride there.
He also asked us to give him a call back and report to him either that
very day or the next. We agreed.

The information we got on this referral was that of a man
named Nori who lives in Hekinan (one of the cities in our area.) The information we got also included that his
wife was a member and that he was very interested to learn about the
Church. We were confused because the referral
came from the Philippines, but his name was Japanese. Also according to what we heard, it sounded
like his wife lived in the Philippines.

We already had plans for that day, so we couldn’t contact
him that day, but we did call a member and ask them if they could take us the
next day. We told them the address, so
they could figure out how to get there.
The next day we went with the member, but apparently the address was too
new and hadn’t been updated in the maps or the GPS. The member dropped us off in the general
location and we set out looking.

We started asking people where we needed to go to get near
the address, and they directed us. After
about twenty minutes of looking, we found a place we thought might be the
apartment, but because of the side of the neighborhood we were on, we were cut off
from a clear path to the apartment. We
didn’t know how we could get around, so we decided to clear some trenches and
squeeze past some narrow parts of an entrance, and finally made it to the
apartment. Luckily, it was the right
one.

We said a prayer, and then went. First we contacted the neighbor, then went
for Higo’s door. We rang the intercom
box, but no response. We rang it again,
but again no response. We didn’t know
what we should do, but as we were talking about it, a voice came on the
intercom. It was him. We told him who we were and that his friend
Daniel from the Philippines said to visit him.
He told us to hang on, and came to the door.

We didn’t know if he was Filipino or Japanese, so we asked. He is Japanese, and his wife is
Filipina. We again told him about Daniel
from the Philippines, but he didn’t know what we were talking about. He called his wife and we talked to her.

Contrary to what we thought, she actually does live in
Japan. She said she was a member, but
that she didn’t know the name of the Church in Japan, so she never could find
it. But she said that she wanted to come
to church and she also wanted us to teach her husband and to baptize him.

That’s exactly what
happened. From that day on, he became an
investigator. They started coming to
church and he was baptized the next transfer.

I know because we treated the referral that President Baird entrusted
to us with care, and followed his directions, we were able to see that miracle.
A
family was able to get on the path to eternity.
My testimony of obedience and treating the Lord’s prepared people with
care was strengthened greatly. I know
God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ live.
This is their work and there is no greater work than missionary work. The Church is true. This is one of my treasured experiences, and
I share it and testify of the greatness of the Lord. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

About Me

Family Theme
We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul- We believe all things, we hope all things, and we have endured many things, and hope to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report of praiseworthy, we seek after these things. -13th Article of Faith